Star Trek Elegy
by Thor2000
Summary: Picard and the Enterprise enter the Twilight Zone to rescue Twenty-First Century astronauts from an episode of the Rod Serling series.


CHAPTER ONE

"Stardate:supplemental." Picard recorded in his log. "During a routine mapping tour near the Serling Expanse, long range sensors detected an old type Earth distress signal coming from a previously uncharted planet in singular orbit in a binary star system. Commander Riker has taken Lt. Data and Science Officer La Forge to investigate."

As Riker came out of the transport cycle, his eyes immediately noticed the structures on the planet. Earth-like! Or what was earth-like back in the Twentieth Century. Data immediately lifted his tricorder as Geordi looked awe-struck. It was almost as if they had traveled in time as they glanced on the old style Earth farm and its environs on the earth-like planet. Riker had heard of other civilizations that had once visited earth and copied the human lifestyle for new planets, but he had never seen it taken to this extreme. Instead of just copying it, it had been reproduced to the greatest detail and then frozen in place. Geordi  
patted down the tractor and scanned the hay everywhere.

"What is this?" Riker asked. "An illusion for our benefit."

"No, it's real," Data confirmed. "It seems to have been replicated much as our food replicators reproduce our needs, but the scoring indicates it's at least a hundred years old. Some sub-atomic strain keeps it from rotting away."

"Commander!" Geordi called as they stood before a small terrier dog. It wasn't moving or making any noise. It looked like it was frozen in place as some realistic prop.

"Also synthesized." Data scanned it. "Material resembles the artificial organics Dr. Crusher uses in surgery."

"Theories?"

"Could be some sort of open museum display created by aliens to depict life on Earth." Data theorized. "I've linked my tricorder to the ship sensors. It is reading approximately 183,272 such displays like this scattered all over the planet depicting various historical, social and legendary displays all over the planet plus..."

"Plus what?" Geordi asked.

"Inactive alien tissue." Data looked up to another figure standing frozen to them. It looked human, resembling an old man with a mustache in very old clothes and a hat standing on a shovel while staring contently out into space. Riker looked deep into his eyes and was unnerved by the frozen likeness of the man who could not move.

"Another reproduction?" Geordi asked.

"Negative." Data answered. "Humanoid alien, basically human. Died of brain aneurysm approximately 254.7 years ago. His body likewise has been preserved by the same sub-atomic strain of chemicals."

"Could he be revived to ask him some questions?"

"Theoretically..." Data passed his tricorder a few feet. "I have a closer lock on the signal we detected. 5.6 meters this way." They sprinted up a hill and through several rolls of corn. As the ground turned up, they came up another hill and looked down upon a tall silver rocket in landing mode. Data stood for what his positronic brain accepted as amazement, but he was actually scanning the craft as Riker and Geordi approached it.

"Old style Earth explorer ship," Geordi pointed out the markings. He pointed to the numbers on the side and the American flag. "Cochrane-style engine, they were used for exploration after the old suspended animation ships were ruled obsolete."

"How'd it get out this far?" Riker watched Data climb up the ladder into the craft. "I thought they couldn't go further than sub-light."

"Maybe it was seized by aliens." Geordi guessed. "Late NASA records reveal that no more than 53 of these ships vanished and were never located."

"Commander, up here!" Data called from inside the craft as they climbed up the ladder to join them. Stepping inside, they noticed Data look back at them. At the helm frozen in place were three more human figures in old Earth astronaut uniforms...

CHAPTER TWO

The three bodies found on the old Earth space ship were beamed directly to sickbay with Data returning with them. Dr. Beverly Crusher immediately grabbed her tricorder and scanned them on arrival.

"They were all frozen while they were still alive." She reported as Picard and Deanna watched. Worf had joined Riker and LaForge on the planet as they examined the odd mystery. "I think I can revive them, but it may take time. I've never seen anything like this."

"Data," Picard turned to the android. "Did you find anything on their ship?"

"Affirmative." Data started. "I was able to access the craft's records. Astrophycist James Webber, Captain, born in Decatur, Minnesota on March 10, 2155. Geologist Peter Kirby, born in Lancaster, North Carolina on September 25, 2157 and biologist Kurt Meyers, born in Wilmington, Oregon on June 10, 2156. Their ship records show they were on a routine geological mission when a meteor shower knocked them off course after which they drifted through space for three months until they drifted into the planet's atmosphere and landed. Theoretically, I believe the meteor storm they encountered carried them off course out here where they were able to leave it. No records on their landing details."

"Curious." Picard looked to the three men and wondered just what they encountered to trap them in such a state. "Rejoin the landing party. I want them on alert."

"Yes, Captain."

"Deanna," Picard turned to his ship's counselor. "Can you sense anything from them?"

"Nothing." The lovely Betazoid counselor answered. "It's almost as if they don't exist to me. Their minds must be frozen even down to the electro-chemical level."

They heard the hiss of the hypo spray as Doctor Crusher hurried over them. Her assistant wheeled out the surgical scanner for analyzing the sub-atomic strain keeping the men frozen. Picard felt sympathy for these adventurers almost as much as they were his own crew. He stared down into Webber's frozen face staring up at him. The poor man had been captured for these years with such a look of preoccupied intrigue that he might as well have been a museum exhibit.

"I wonder what it was your eyes saw for the last time." Picard mumbled to himself.

CHAPTER THREE  
Dr. Beverly Crusher modified another hypo as she injected Dr. James Webber in her efforts to revive him. She had countered the strain keeping him immobile and was now trying to resuscitate his autonomic functions as he suddenly gasped and looked around. His head turned around as he momentarily scanned his lovely doctor and then noticed Picard standing behind her.

"Earth..." His voice was raspy and dry. "Am I..."

"No," Crusher started. "We're in orbit above the planet you crashed on."

"I'm Jean Luc Picard of the Federation Starship Enterprise." Picard began as the hypo spray sounded behind him for Kirby and Meyers. "You've been frozen for almost two hundred years."

"Two hundred..." Webber tried to sit up. "Wickwire!"

"Wickwire?"

"He's the one who poisoned us!" Webber continued. "We begged and pleaded for the antidote to his poison, but he wouldn't give it. He just babbled on that we were men and were bringing war..."

"I don't understand."

"Captain," Webber turned on his side. "Do you have any men on the planet?"

"Yes," Picard sat on the edge of the bed. "A small landing party."

"Get them back fast!" Webber became agitated as his own men woke up. "The whole planet is a cemetery! A graveyard full of fantasies brought to life and Wickwire is the caretaker. He's dangerous, and not to be trusted! If you value the lives of your men, get them back on board and fast!"

Picard stood up as the sense of urgency hit him. He tapped his combadge.

"Number One." He spoke. No response. "Number One? Computer, where is my first officer?"

"Sensors cannot locate him on the planet." The ship's computer system answered.

CHAPTER FOUR  
"You are an android? " Data stood watching the old man that the landing crew had turned up in one of the Old Earth style houses on the planet.

"Yes, yes," Wickwire turned and sat in a chair beneath a large window. Worf stood on guard as the wily looking figure grinned amiably and cordially. He produced a tray with drinks. "I'm the caretaker of this cemetery."

"Cemetery?" Riker looked up as he took one of the glasses.

"Yes." Wickwire continued. "You see, this planet was set up by my creators at Happy Glade as a final reward for its patrons. For example, commander, if you wasn't here, where would you be?"

"Where?" Riker passed a look to Worf and then to Geordi. "I don't know. Maybe back on Earth, fishing with my father."

"Well," Wickwire grinned clandestinely now. "If you died here, you would be preserved in such a setting. All my patrons here have been preserved in such manners. This house was built for a Mr. Jenkinson, but at the last second he chose to be slaying dragons out in our Middle Ages exhibit."

"Commander," Worf distracted Riker. "Sensors detect a dampening field around this structure concealing our presence from the ship. Permission to seek its source."

"Affirmative." Riker watched Worf place his glass aside and slowly wander off. Sipping a bit more of the wine, Riker turned back to Wickwire.

"I have a question." Geordi stopped scanning the structure. "You spoke of your creators at Happy Glade. Who were they?"

"A very old alien race that lost their planet because of war." Wickwire admitted. "Virtually indistinguishable from yourselves, they passed themselves off as humans on earth for millennia until your wars forced them to leave. They retreated to another planet with many beings from your planet and recreated your planet's culture without all the spoils of war, but the seed of war did not go away. The humans with them tainted their perfect world and taught them how to kill and hate. They destroyed themselves in your early Twenty-First Century."

Riker heard a crash as Worf crashed to the floor grabbing at his throat. Geordi felt it too as did Riker. Data watched unable to help as he scanned the wine his friends had been drinking. He found traces of the sub-atomic strain in the drink.

"You see," Wickwire stood over Riker. "I cannot allow you to destroy this world. You would bring war and corruption. I cannot allow this. You are men, but you..." He turned to Data. "…Are a machine. You can help me purge the universe of the evils of man."

"I am afraid I can not allow you to do that." Data pulled out his phaser and fired at Wickwire. Worf was fighting to remain standing as the odd old man flew back from the blast. Data clicked his combadge.

"Data to Enterprise." He asked. No response.

"But you are a machine." Wickwire stood up outside. A waft of smoke was coming from a large spot on his chest. "You cannot be evil."

"Evil is in the acts that men do." Data scanned the area and altered his frequency. "Enterprise, beam the landing party straight to sickbay."

Wickwire watched as the four strangers vanished into energy before his very eyes. He seemed to gasp and drop into his chair.

"They never seem to understand." He lamented. "It's for their own good."

CHAPTER FIVE  
Picard sat in his ready room as he heard the door chirp. He looked up as Captain James Webber entered obviously getting very used to the Enterprise and no worse for his experience.

"Captain," He wandered in. "I just want to thank you for saving me and my men. I'm also sorry about what happened to your men."

"Our doctor has treated them." Picard leaned back. "They'll be okay, but you didn't really come up here to tell me things we already knew."

"Well," Webber grinned abashedly as he sat down. "What's going to happen to us? It's been two hundred years. Our families are gone, things have changed..."

"We had people on board a while back released from cryogenic chambers adrift in space." Picard remembered. "They are all alive and well and living on Earth very happy. If you so desired, you could even join Starfleet after being recaught up through the Academy. You and your men will be able to hop a ride back to Earth on the Griffin. They are heading that way and we'll be rendezvousing with them in a day."

"And Wickwire?"

"I sent a message to Starfleet requesting the planet and system be quarantined." Picard showed him the electronic pad with the message. "Wickwire can be left in his quiet and peace for a very long time."

"It's been..." Webber stood. "A very sobering experience."

"Agreed." Picard and Webber shook hands.

END


End file.
